So for the 4 day Deepvali weekend (most sacred holiday in the Hindu religion) we took off for Hong Kong. A slight mishap was realized while we were at the airport…Bee wore his flip-flops and no other shoes had been packed for him….a bit of a problem with the challenging Dragon’s Back hike planned for the weekend…but alas we powered on.
After a midnight arrival on Friday Nov 2, we started Saturday with our 1st taste of excellent dim sum – highlight was definitely the custard bun …we walked around Hong Kong Island hitting up the Man Mo Temple, Upper Lascar Street Market where Jay and Bee got some cool Chinese bracelets, going down the Mid Level Escalators (longest in the world!) and even stopping at a rip-off MLB store. After grabbing some delicious bubble tea, we took the famous Star Ferry over to the Kowloon side of the island. After braving the crowds on Nathan Mall – a shopping district that made Singapore seem calm…we found our way over to the Hong Kong Museum of History- learned all about the formerly powerful trading post of Macau, the Opium Wars, where Britain seized control of Hong Kong for 100 years, and some crazy festivals (including one where people build and try to climb up a tower made of Chinese buns). We even got to see some giant statues of Chines gods…very interesting. After the museum- we grabbed a huge Chines bun to snack on, we tried out the metro system as we ventured back to Central. Dad then took us on a beautiful walk where we saw some fantastic views of the Hong Kong skyline- but unfortunately the rest of the gang didn’t fully appreciate hiking up the hill in lieu of the escalators. Finished the night with some very good Italian food.
Day 2 in Hong Kong started out with a trek back up the hill (apparently the escalators go downhill in the AM for the commuters-even on Sunday) for Mass, followed by a great little breakfast at a cafe right near our Air B&B. Then we went to the Chin Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden- an awesome monastery and Chinese Garden in the north part of Kowloon. Jay and Bee thought the wooden models of the famous Chinese buildings were very cool and the impressive views of the tranquil gardens, pagodas and temples with sky scrapers in the background made for great photo-ops. Next stop was a bit random..as mentioned above- Bee had managed hiking up the hills of Hong Kong Island with his flip-flops but the Dragon’s Back would be another thing entirely- so we found a friendly Decathalon sporting goods store- and since we were getting Bee some sneakers , why not grab Jack a new hiking backpack while we were at it…so decked out in their new gear, Bee and Jay headed to the elegant Langham for high tea- a delicious tasting of fine sandwiches and appetizers with tea …and champagne! All pink in support of breast cancer we believe…after tea- a walk back to the tram for Victoria Peak- but a two hour plus wait made us delay until Day 3…so found this awesome garden with really cool fountains to play in…finally finished off the day at a supercool rooftop Mediterranean restaurant- kebabs and hummus! And of course- on our way home – ran into a Chinese Parade for some unknown celebration- complete with dancing lions and dragons costumes made of balloons!
Day 3 was all about getting to the Top! It started with a subway ride down to the end of Hong Kong Island for the Famous Dragon’s Back Hike- the most popular day hike in Hong Kong. True to its name, Jay and Bee led us over the wind swept rolling hills-with amazing views in all directions of the twisting coastline of Hong Kong. Quite a bit of work but amazing scenery- all only a few kms from the heart of the city. 8 km of hiking later- we ended the hike on am awesome little beach, where we watched the surfers, Jay and Bee ate ice cream and Mom and Dad sipped Coronas. Back to the heart of the city for the tram ride of Victoria Peak- Jay loved the supercool optical illusion where the buildings look like the tilt over and Bee loved the awesome views of the Hong Kong skyline- as the tram- formerly used for commuting but now reserved for tourists- chugged slowly up the track- even better views- and more ice cream awaited us at the summit. We raced back down and then across to Kowloon just in time for our reservation back up in the sky – at the 118th story of the Ritz Carlton- for drinks, appetizers and amazing skyline views. Afterwards, we found one of the coolest Chinese restaurants around with a”snake” cucumber, Peking duck and a noodle making demonstration. Even got great views of the laser show over Victoria Harbour. More great photo-ops with what has to be the world’s greatest skyline awaited on the shores of Kowloon – and we finished the night with an adventure to buy a gorgeous tea set for Mom, a nightime ride on the Star Ferry and a ride on the Hong Kong “night train”- a super skinny tram ride through Central Hong Kong- what a day!!
Our last day in Hong Kong again had us reaching for the Clouds…this time via the Ngong Ping Skyrail. After trekking our luggage on the train (and finding a set of mall lockers near the airport) we took the glass bottom skycab on a very cool ride up Ngong Ping Village- and what weekend would be complete in Asia without a Giant Buddha, – this one the Tian Tan Budha is claimed to be the world’s largest seated Bronze Budha- checking in at 31 m – he definitely is pretty big. In the village, we saw a down right strange story about the life of Budha and experienced the wonders of a tea that flowers when you add hot water- very cool. The Buddha was the big highlight though- as we 1st passed through a series of towers showing you which year of the Chinese calendar corresponded to your best hour of the day, a cow (because why wouldn’t there be a cow), and then walked right up to the big guy for awesome views! The nearby Po Lin Monastery had some beautiful relief work – and then it was time to catch our skycab back down- complete with views of the new bridge to Macau- and then our plane back to Singapore- what a 4 day weekend!
